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Dev: Strategic Plan
This is the general design direction of the game. New development projects must respect those guidelines. Making changes to the guidelines must be deeply analyzed. Player Experience Fast-pace combat * No down time while in combat. ** Minimal menu-ing. ** Small down-time on death: Easy to revive partner. When eliminated in a quest, offer something to do meanwhile. ** Minimal preparation before combat * Encourage risk taking / aggressive gameplay Casual * Small penalty on death * Level and gears matter more than talent for solo-related content. (All content but highscore, competition and competitive PvP). * Possible to grind if lack of talent. <- Issue right now Repeatable Content * Content must be as repeatable as possible to minimize development time. * Repeatable content must have some depth. (Ex: Not killing x1000 the same monster.) * Repeating content must give unique unreplacable rewards (aka be the only way to get a specific reward). Ex: Highscore stars, emoji. Only giving exp and items is not good. Reversible Decision * All decisions can be changed. * Content must never become inaccessible. * The cost to reroll may be high. * Consequence: For quest storylines that split, must give option to repeat it with other branch. Mobile friendly * All progression-related content must be accessible on mobile. (Note: Cosmetic features don't have to.) ** No key feature on right-click or mouseover. * All interfaces must handle both pc and mobile. Story * Understandable and enjoyable even if skip all dialogues and cutscenes. * Understandable even if no computer knowledge. * May contain advanced computer notions, but must not be part of the main story. (Ex: Can be in lore books.) * Must be expandable. Has no hard ending. * Small number of characters. Focus on making them feel unique and interesting. * Characters must be memorable, especially their name. This means easy to say and remember names. * Story doesn't need to be linear. * No irreversible storyline split. Multiplayer * Must be enjoyable solo. (Doesn't require multiplayer to be a good game.) * All content must be accessible solo. (Exception for non-content features such as achievements and highscores.) * Trading is not mandatory to beat content. * Best equipment must be obtained by yourself. Prevents secondary account and rwt. * Encourage trading. (Ex: Common currency.) * Prevent inflation ** Untradable top-tier equip. ** Consumable currency. * Quick and easy to join friends at any time. (Exception for solo content.) ** Better to allow joining with reward penalty than to not allow. Rage-quitting * Limit RNG: Being unlucky increases chance to become lucky later. Ex: Pet drop rate. * No situation where player lose all or win all. * Prefer incremental progress over luck-based progress. * PvP optional. * Must not be able to be harassed by other players even when muted. Ex: Prevent players from doing something. * Must not be forced to play with someone you don't like. Crafting * Easy to get decent weapon but perfect weapon is very hard * Entry cost should be very small to encourage early upgrade. * Allow players to keep equip for a long time. (Allow to level up the equip.) * Newly found equip must potentially be better than leveled up equip. <- Issue right now. Reduce max roll if leveled up? PvP * Less important than PvE * A PvP update shouldn't degrade PvE. * Keep PvP for fun. (Linked with Rage-quitting and engine limitation.) * Allow PvP customization. Map * High player density area Development Fast Development * Use static analysis as must as possible * Minimize code using any typing. * Permit shortcut against OOP, but must be statically validated. Fast Maintenance * Minimize issue tracking overhead * Stay up to date with new technology * Support old browser versions only if doesn't affect code structure or performance. Performance * Server performance is more important than client performance * Do as much work on the client as possible while remaining not exploitable * Stay up to date with new technology * Goal is 50 players per server. If not met, gameplay will need to be tuned down. Fast Release * Minimize manual testing by running integrity tests * Downtime less than 30 minutes are acceptable. Database * Keep the data up to date with the server. (Ex: Removed quests should be removed from database.) * Data integrity more important than player progress. (Ex: Will not save player progress is corrupted.)